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Saturday, March 16, 2002

MOVES TO OUTLAW COPY PROTECTION: You do wonder if sometimes record industry execs, washing the spunk dribble from their thighs as the too-young girls teeter drunkenly on their heels round the Cannes hotel bedroom, ever rue the day they decided fuck with the status quo of home copying. Prior to the Metallica whinge, everything had settled into a spot of blind-eye turning that worked in everyone's favour. Yes, copies were made, but it was clear that it was just another way of tunes getting known - it worked in everyone's favour. It was the street-team concept, but without the sickening smell of bomber jacket and cokedust that the officially endorsed enthusiasm squads give off. Since the start of the industry taking on the kids over Napster, however, more and more light has been shone on practices the industry take for granted that may not actually be entirely fair. We've already seen how one part of the fallout has been a question mark being thrown over the legality of record companies taking artists' copyright; now there's an attempt being made to rule any form of copy protection unconstitutional. And they still haven't stopped people who want to swapping MP3 files. But at least you closed Napster, didn't you? Well done...
MSN reports - "... actually, now we come to think of it, home taping didn't actually kill music either, did it?"

Friday, March 15, 2002

THE WEAKEST LINK: How come Craig Charles show is being trailed with snippets of a programme that hasn't been broadcast yet? Which implies this is just bits made up for the trail, in which case why on earth didn't he try that "funkiest biscuits baked in the Peak Freans factory" ablib again, because it makes no sense, does it? There is a Peak Freans music link, of course, because there's a line in a Siddeleys song about how "the Peak Freans factory pumping smoke reminds me of the past/ of waking up quite terrified, of always coming last." But somehow I doubt if Craig Charles is going to be playing them...

RE-ARMED: Good to see that Mudhoney are back in action again - I'd assumed they'd been lost in the wave that Nirvana threw up behind themselves as grunge spalttered all over the wall of Kurt's garage, but the older band are still there, just about to release a new album, and - apparently - as vibrant as ever. And not just re-hashing Touch me I'm sick either. Which is screamingly nice.
Mark Arm talks to Rolling Stone

Thursday, March 14, 2002

...OR ARE YOU JUST PLEASED TO SEE ME?: Possibly the genuinely most erotic or something band on the planet, erstwhile bsn-person Carmen and her band of rock bears, the Pocket Rockets have got a whole page of their stuff up on the Washington Post. Go download. Then send muffin baskets of thanks.
Washington Post rocks - because you can never have too many Bella Lugosis...
And they're on Teenbeat now, too...

THE MOST EROTIC BAND IN THE WORLD: That's what Akash claims to be, anyway. So we went to their website and MP3.com files to check. They're not, of course - having some tits on your homepage doesn't make you erotic, and the music didn't put me in the mood, but some of the tracks are quite nice in an ambient sort of way. If you're looking to a-woo, you may want to carry on searching, but if you want a bit of goth-cum-indutriallite to fill your office with, they might be worth checking out.

OKAY. FOR ONE WEEK ONLY. AGAIN. WHAT THE POP PAPERS SAY: Because it'll save me having to repeat myself here, lots.
sometimes, choices are hard. Sometimes, not so. GQ has a double cover option this month, but it's a choice between Kirsten Dunst and Jamiroquai. With the possible exception of Denise Van Outen, there's not a person alive who would chose the twat in a hat over the queen of the screen…

Glamour manages to give away a CD that's probably worth about double the cover price alone - Kylie, Dido, that sort of thing. Handy if your sister is having a party. And she reads New Woman…

Britney "wants a pretty wedding" she tells Elle magazine - whereas, of course, Nerve - currently only living online - says she wants to come clean about the state of her hymen. Whatever you feel about Brit, and the to-ing and fro-ing of her love life with the gormless Justin Timberlake (name like a shoe; intellect like a sandal), at least you can accept that she is a proper Pop Idol. She has it. Last week's Guardian Review took the occasion of the release of Shakira's first album in the UK to point out that "it" is precisely what the quartet of Pop Idols lacked - that Will, Darius, Rick and Gareth had none of the swagger, the spin, the glitter, the "look at me" quality that makes Madonna, Britney, Bowie, Jagger more than just people who sing songs. Not that it'll stop the idiots worshipping false idols, but you would have hoped that by now some sort of burning bush would have been sent as a warning. Instead, the column inches on the most unremarkable of singers still roll on; this week, Will outed himself to the News of the World; Gareth said he was brave in the Mirror; and so it goes on. Unedifying. It's probably not surprising that Burchill came out in favour in the Weekend Guardian…

No wonder Justine wanted out. In a wide-ranging interview with the Observer colour supplement, the most respectable of the Britpop generation gave out on why she's given up, frankly and open - except for the bits she didn't want her Observer reading mum and dad to know about…

HMV has started to stock Careless Talk Costs Lives, the Everett True attempt to do for left-field music writing what Mojo has done for rock. And rather fine it is, too - the fact that discovering a six page interview conducted by the former Legend! and the widow of John Lennon gives you a warm, happy glow probably demonstrates what a poor state the newsagent rock press is in. True manages to spend a large portion of his time with Ono musing on how great he is - surely no other journalist in the world would have managed to mention "The shop assistants wrote a song about me" in a piece about Yoko. "I see Everett is back to his old tricks" says the owner of the fanzine archive in another piece (this man has thirteen years of unread zines piled up in his offices, making it not unlike my bedroom), but it would be unfair to describe CTCL as a fanzine - it's got its faults (ET writes too much) but it's still fine, a place where there's space to ponder why Riot Grrl failed ("Some girls just discovered another cute way to dress hot - If it's just about clothes, we've got back to square one") is to be welcomed…

Mind you, the way the Wire has transformed itself from the sort of well-meaning magazine that wishes it didn't just go to WOMAD for the felafel and Peter Gabriel's sets into the house journal of All Tomorrow's Parties suggests there may actually be a whole sector developing here. Two decades in, The Wire has finally dematured. The current issue boasts a fine Sonic Youth blaggers guide, and Steinski doing the listening to records and commenting pieces…

It's perhaps ironic that in the course of this, he talks about the time 'The Motorcade Sped On' was released in the UK - it was an NME covermount, an ep with Sonic Youth and Sly and Robbie. This week's NME comes with an MTV-funded free video, featuring Starsailor and The Hives. Good, but hardly as jaw-droppingly exciting as what we were used to. In addition, both CTCL and Wire draw heavily on old NME and MM staffers - even Savage Pencil is still there, scribbling away. And as you look around you, from Steven Appleby in The Times on Saturday, to Danny Baker on Five Live, Andrew Collins on Six, Stuart Maconie every fucking where, even the odious Burchill - the whole of British Pop Culture has benefitted from the nme's influence. But it's hard to imagine any of the current crop of writers having much to offer in 2022…

One other off-road recommendation - The Circuit has started charging for its magazine, but the admirable former handbook for the New Acoustic Movement has beefed up its content to make good the deal. The current issue - confusingly called Devil's Music on the front page - even comes with a nifty free CD, complete with Giant Sand and The Handsome Family…

Anyway, what has the World's Second Biggest Selling Rock Weekly got for us? A nice piece of bet-hedging, actually, putting the Streets on the cover (so, if they are massive, the paper can claim "we had them on the cover back when they were nothing"), but sealed inside the giveaway bag so that the incredibly ugly bloke won't put anyone off. Is this the first front cover that nobody has ever seen?…

News goes exclusively behind the scenes at the Oasis video shoot - like we can't imagine what that's going to be lie; System of a Down observe "people don't just hijack planes and commit hari-kari without a reason", believe this to be a subversive thought; Michael Stipe is going to do some vocals for Faultline; Marilyn Manson really has blown it, by bothering to do interviews about how his pisspoor version of Tainted Love is coming out on the same day as Gareth Gates' debut single - Marilyn, a real god of headfuck doesn't spend time fretting about the runner-up on a talent show, honey; the NME wants us to spare a thought for poor Asher D because he's in feltham - ah, suddenly conditions in British prisons are meant to bother us because some stage school dipshit is charged in a connection with an incident where its alleged a gun was used to threaten a traffic warden?…

At last, the nme have number crunched the poll questions, to discover Inspector Frost fans prefer Moulin Rouge; Muse fans started drinking before they were 14 and radiohead fans are the most likely to own a cat…

new band hell: the mars volta - at the drive-in second wave; desaparecidos - destined to be the most miss-spelled Bright eyes side project; span - another nordic rock band…

How much longer did that "how you will you die" poll say you have left to live? Whatever, not long enough for Sum 41 talking about being totally into S&M bars. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and Jamie Theakston only popped in to use the phone, you wankers…

What do you know about cocaine? asks the government in a two page spread - incredibly pretty people have things to say, almost certainly written for them by a London advertising executive between lines - "My mate hasn't had any for ages and still gets paranoid" says one - she should, because WE KNOW WHERE SHE LIVES. Apparently a Dave Rowntree lookealike doesn't care as long as he's alright for Monday. You look like Dave Rowntree, son, it doesn't matter anyway. The strap line is "If you're wondering how cocaine causes anxiety or paranoia, call us." Paranoid about illegal drug use? Call the government. Yeah, can't see any problem with that…

Michael Douglas either was interested or fake interested in his band, and he gets excited. He's "never felt scared of fame or beauty." For some things, there is money. For everything else, there is Tim Burgess. He is our pop star…

Northern Uproar's Mike Skinner apparently starts all his anecdotes with "The other night I was really fucked…" but the new album isn't about drugs at all. It's about… um, people taking drugs. Did I say Northern Uproar? Sorry, I meant The Streets. Easy slip to make. If anyone calls them The Garage Northside, he'll pull a blade…

Walter from rival schools does the top ten thingy Pink Floyd, The Smiths, The Byrds. Oh, and Langley Schools Music Project, which is - of course - the current *essential* name to drop, don't you know?…

SOTW is Marilyn manson's Tainted Love. Yes, yes, I've checked twice. It is. Steven Wells fault. Several layers down, Satellite's Lighten up the load is WSOTW. In between: Travis. Apparently Flowers in the window was thought - at first - too soppy to be on the album. Hmmm…

live: Doves in Brighton ( "If Fran Healy isn't worried, he should be"); Tommy & the Chauffeur in Blackwood ("quotes Bill Hicks and still sounds uncontrived"); The Vines at the Freebutt in Brighton ("this year's Strokes"); Foo Fighters in Salt Lake ("snatch the gold in crowd-pleasing")

Wednesday, March 13, 2002

BRIT STRIPPED:Possibly the best thing you'll read about Ms Spears' virginity has turned up in the ever-reliable Nerve magazine, picking up nicely how Brit's decision to try and keep the same demographic (instead of growing old with the audience, a la Madonna) has made her a prisoner a hymen nobody can any longer believe in:
"I remember hearing my seven-year old niece absently singing "Hit Me Baby One More Time" from the backseat of the car. She had no idea what the song meant. The charm of that video was that neither did Britney. The setup was soft-core porn, and it was utterly riveting, because it married a blank, baby face with a bursting woman's body. The mind seemed not to know what the body was doing to its audience (that's the essence of kiddie porn: "I'm being turned on by this underage girl, but it's okay because, look at her, she has no idea") which is why it made parents so uncomfortable, until it was widely reported that Britney was a virgin, a Christian, and a good girl. Don't worry, parents, if your girls love this music, dress like her, want to sing and dance like her, they're in safe hands. Britney's not a perv. She has no sexual longings of her own, and if you think filthy things about her, then you're the one with the problem."full article in Nerve - Boy, if they had brought soliciting charges against that bloke who offered her cash...

Tuesday, March 12, 2002

RAPE ME: If you've been as confused as I have by all the various to-ing and fro-ing in the Nirvana court battles, there's a pretty good Chicago Sun-Times piece that updates and sketches out the whole struggle to date. It includes the time that - apparently not at Courtney's insistence - Kurt forced the other two to retrospectively change writing royalties from an even split to 75% for him, 12.5% each for them amongst other things, but also raises the more philosophical question: what IS a band? Should the Kurt musical doodles be released under his name, or the Nirvana banner? While the speculation makes you somewhat queasy - Grunge act turning to International Brand in your mouth - it's still fascinating. Plus, Courtney has got email from Christina Aguilera:
""I got an e-mail from Christina Aguilera. Know what she wrote? 'Na na, wass up?' You know what I wrote back? 'I'm in bed watching an Eleanor of Aquitaine documentary. [Imitates a school teacher:] Do you know who Eleanor of Aquitaine was?' I am not gonna sit there and go, 'Wass up?' That [freaking] Disney tutor should be shot! And Christina doesn't understand why I don't want to sing back-up on her record!"The piece in full - Frances Bean won't be spoiled, she'll have to work a full *three* months a year. But what will Dunkin Donuts do the other nine?
NP on Six: Lloyd Cole live

Monday, March 11, 2002

SIX UPDATE: We've also learned today that Marilyn Manson played his first gig in an English theme pub in Florida.
One of the nice touches is they do Music News in the way Five Live do sports news - they're leading today on Fatboy Slim being moaned at for saying "E isn't that bad, really"
NP: Pulp - Babies. A rare '92 session version. Woo!

SIX STARTS: Anyone else listening to six music? I dunno if it's perhaps a sad reflection on the state of radio in the UK that a breakfast show which plays Ben Folds Five and Elvis Costello sounds so radical, but it's a start...
Not too sure about Jupitus yet - I think he might thrive a bit more when the listeners turn up and he's got stuff to bounce off. And, of course, it's still the first show, so anything could happen.
NP: What do i get - the buzzcocks (specially recorded version)
The first track was Ash, who won that poll. Jupitus suggested that Ash fans might be better placed to rig a computer based poll. Hmmm. He then played Sex and drugs and rock and roll anyway...
It's mainly online - and 911 on Sky Digital
NP: Offshore Banking Business...